The Mooretown Storm will need a little help as they have 3 ½
points following a 4-3 loss to start the tournament and a 4-4 tie in the
afternoon against two Ice Dogs teams on Friday.
The Mooretown Storm opened the Doug Perkes Memorial Tournament with a game against Arran-Elderslie Red Ice Dogs. Mooretown would fall victim to the Ice Dogs right off the hop as the Ice Dogs would score 55 seconds into the game but both teams would settle in and neither team would score for the remainder of the opening frame. Josh Raymond would make the trip to the Sin Bin midway through the first but the Ice Dogs would not capitalize as the penalty killers would get the job done. The second period the Storm seemed to find their legs as Dominic Aliperti would score 1:08 into the second at to tie the game at 1 with assists to Keaton Frayne and Josh Sterling. Josh Raymond would get tagged again in the second but again the penalty kill would keep the Ice Dogs at bay. Mooretown would then take the lead as Aliperti scored of the game unassisted with 1:42 remaining in the second and the Storm would win the period and head to the third with momentum. The second would end with Keaton Frayne in the penalty box as he and an Ice Dogs player would get roughing after the whistle penalty after a shoving match in front of the Ice Dogs net. The Storm took a two goal lead 16 seconds into the third as Aliperti would pot the natural hat trick on a rebound after Cam Crowley went D to D to Colton Williamson who fired it on net to garner assists. But the wheels would fall off the Storms wagon shortly as Dominic Aliperti would get a slashing penalty 16 seconds later and the Ice Dogs Power play would connect to pull within one with 13:48 left in the game. 1:17 later the Ice dogs would tie it up at 3. Aliperti would get tagged with a slashing penalty with 3:47 left and the Ice Dogs would make the Storm pay as they scored 10 seconds later to take the lead 4-3 and win the game. The Storm were given hats by Tournament organizers and the 3 players of the game were given to Chloe Plain, Anthony Plain and Cam Crowley. The Storm would get 1 out of 5 points for winning the second period.
Game 2 the Storm would face the BCH Ice Dogs from Bayfield knowing that they needed to get more points out of the game in order to have a chance to advance after round robin play. The team had some mini stick and video game time in between games in the hall attached to the Arena. The Storm would get back to business but had a little fun with the fans as they did the wave on the bench waiting for the Zamboni to finish it’s job. The game started off on a rocky note again as BCH would score 41 seconds into the contest. BCH would strike again less than 2 minutes later as the Storm seemed to struggle out of the gate. But the second goal seemed to wake up the team and they responded with pressure. Keaton Frayne would find the back of the net to get the Storm on the board with assists given to Braeden Hunt and MacKenzie Lumley. Anthony Plain would get his first goal of the season on a hard shot from just inside the blue line that went off a defenders stick and in to tie the game. Dominic Aliperti would get the assist on the goal that tied the game at 2. Josh Raymond would get tagged for a trip with 1:35 left in the period but Mooretown would kill off the penalty that extended into the second period. After 4 gboals in the first both teams would start to tighten up their defensive play but BCH would take the lead 2:40 into the second to grab a 1 goal lead that would last for the rest of the middle frame. The Ice Dogs would go up 2 4:28 into the the third as the Storm were unable to contain a smart break out by the opposition. Mooretown wouldn’t take long to show they weren’t giving up as Dominic Aliperti scored 58 seconds later to close the gap to 1. Chloe Plain would grab the assist on the goal. Keaton Frayne would go to the box on a tripping penalty with 3:09 left but Mooretown would keep the Ice Dogs at bay. To coin a phrase used by a good friend of the coach the “Cardiac Kids” waited until less than the last minute as Goalie Gladwish came to the bench and with 6 on 5 Dominic Aliperti would slide into the slot and fire one home to make it a 4-4 tie. Josh Raymond would get a late tripping penalty with 2.3 but the game would end in a 4-4 tie. Mooretown received 2.5 points for tying a period, winning a period and tying the game. Players of the game were awarded to Josh Raymond, Keaton Frayne and Colton Williamson. The Storm sit in 4th place with one game remaining and will know what they need to do to get top 2 when they face the Dorchester Dragons. The Storm will need a 4 or 5 point game and a little help in the battle of the Ice Dogs which is played before the Storm’s final round robin game.